Menu - August 2013

Working Together with Clinton-Macomb Public Library

Twenty seven of our library clients have been partners for ten years! To celebrate, we’refeaturing their unique stories and how Tutor.com has impacted their diverse communities.

Clinton-Macomb Public Library (CMPL) has a special connection to its Michigan community. Formed in 1992, the library was spear-headed by citizens who were deeply concerned about dwindling resources for children in the community when the county library decided to focus strictly on research. Little more than five years later a tax referendum for funding was passed and the library was able to officially open its doors. We caught up with CMPL to discuss their history and the success they’ve had with their community programs.

Clinton-Macomb Public Library had such an interesting start! Tell us a little more about that.

Our small but tenacious library built a solid base of support in the community after the initial action taken in 1992. The library board realized that the goal of creating a good first class library system for the citizens of Macomb and Clinton Townships could not be achieved without a strong base of sustained adequate financing. A vigorous campaign for a one mill tax in perpetuity was mounted and with its passage, the “new” Clinton-Macomb Public Library began. A new hired staff managed the ambitious goal of opening three new library buildings. We like to say that the library board’s “promises made” were indeed “promises kept.” The new CMPL system of a Main Library, South Branch and North Branch was all completed in a remarkable five years.

Wow! We love that the community realized the importance of having resources for the children. How large is the community you serve?

CMPL directly serves residents of Macomb Township and most of Clinton Township. We have 86,000 resident library card-holders and serve an additional 30,000 card-holders through reciprocal borrowing agreements.

What is one of the most popular events the library has hosted?

We have been very committed to the idea of promoting reading over the summer months as a way to maintain skills gained during the school year. Back in June, we hosted our first ever Summer Reading Kick-off Carnival with much success. We had magicians, a bounce-house, face-painting, free ice-cream, balloon-animals, and a concert by a local band. It was very well attended and as a result it was a great opportunity for our staff to promote our summer reading initiatives.

We’re excited to be celebrating our 10 year partnership with CMPL this year! What tactics have you used over the years to make it such a successful program?

We do the traditional means of advertising the service through our quarterly newsletter and on our website. But one of the more effective things we have done is contact local schools, specifically the high schools, and asked them to put a link to the service on their website. When they did, usage increased. In fact, we first introduced Tutor.com in 2002 and usage has increased every year since then.

That is a great idea to encourage schools to help get the word out to students. What words of advice would you have for other libraries looking to bring in an online tutoring program?

Don’t be afraid of success – we marketed ourselves to schools and as a result our numbers increased!

Lastly, do you have any student comments that stand out about the Tutor.com service?

Some of our favorites include:

“I had a really great tutor! She helped me brainstorm ideas and I finally was able to start my essay!:)”

“Very clear and helped me out so now I know how to do it now. I have receive 100 on my test thanks fuys for making it possible”

“it’s great iv only use it for a couple of minutes and I’m already hooked :)”

We’ll be featuring one of our ten-year library clients each month. To learn more about our homework, career and reference support services for libraries go to www.tutor.com/libraries

About Tutor.com Experts

The Tutor.com team writes a collection of articles focusing on trends and topics related to our partners in public libraries, colleges and universities and military families. From student success stories, to college retention trends, we cover it all.